Angel

By: SilvorMoon

Jack never found out where the others slept that night. Presumably they had figured out an acceptable arrangement for themselves, because they were all wide awake and in good spirits when he joined them around the kitchen table for breakfast. While Carly directed various people to find spare plates and forks or sent them down to the pantry for ingredients, Crow flashed Jack a grin and asked, "Did you sleep well?" Jack didn't bother to answer. There was nothing he could say that would make him shut up, anyway.

Eventually they all found themselves sitting around the table, some on chairs and some on packing crates Carly had told them didn't hold anything important. She had whipped up the kind of breakfast Jack wouldn't have expected to find anywhere but in one of the more prosperous cities, and it was clear that most of her guests were not used to eating anywhere near so well. Carly seemed pleased to have such appreciative guests - or else she was just enjoying having other people around to rope into helping her with the housework.

"Are you sure you guys can't hang around for a while?" she asked. "It's kind of nice having company."

"I don't think that's possible," said Yusei regretfully. "There are some dangerous people who might be looking for us. It's not safe for us here."

"Besides, this isn't your fight," said Bruno.

"If there's anything left of us when we get back, we'll definitely come by to visit," Crow assured her.

Jack sipped thoughtfully at his coffee. "What do you know about the university where this LeBlanc character teaches?"

"Only a little," she admitted. "They send me articles a lot. I think one of the staff there is a fan or something."

"But you know something," Jack pressed.

"What do you want to know?" she replied.

"I thought you might be able to advise us on how to negotiate our way inside," Jack said. "They might let me pass because of my reputation, but they won't let these three in, and I won't know what to ask about when I get there. Yusei and Bruno will. If we have someone familiar to them to speak up for us, they might be more inclined to listen."

Crow snickered. Jack glared at him, but he merely grinned and winked.

Yusei frowned. "Jack, we can't ask her to come with us. It's too dangerous for her."

"He's right," said Bruno. "This is our fight. These people are dangerous. She could get hurt."

"And if anyone finds out we were here, a spiritstorm could conveniently wipe out her soundhouse with her in it," Jack retorted. "She's in whether we like it or not."

Carly nodded. "I'm not afraid. I want to come."

"Won't someone notice your station has stopped airing, if you leave?" Yusei asked.

"I can buy myself some time," she said. "I'll send a message to some of the other keepers and tell them I sprained my back doing repair work, and I'll set the computers to play pre-recorded stuff for a few days. No one will notice I'm not here. Not for a while, anyway."

"I hope you know what you're doing," said Bruno. He still didn't look happy; he'd stopped eating and was stirring his food around on his plate.

She shook her head. "I don't. I haven't left this building in years. I don't know anything except what comes in through the news. I want to go out. No matter how dangerous it is, I want to see something different for a change."

"Aw, let her come," said Crow. "She won't take up much room. You never know, she might turn out to be useful sometime."

"Three to two," Jack declared, fixing his gaze on Yusei and Bruno. "You're outvoted."

Yusei frowned. Then he laughed softly. "I suppose we are. All right, you win. If you want to come, you can come. Pack up anything you think you're going to need and meet us at the tanker."

Carly gave a little squeak of excitement and scurried off to pack. Crow gave Jack a knowing look.

"You two must have had some night last night," he said.

Jack calmly took a bite of his toast. "We talked, mostly."

"Talked?" Crow repeated. "For real?"

"Right," said Jack. "Got to know each other. She told me about her life, I talked about how I became a courier. Things like that."

"Not exactly an exciting night," said Crow.

"I said mostly," said Jack. "Why are you so interested in my personal life, anyway?"

"I live under a rock in the middle of the desert," said Crow. "If I can't have a love life, I'll bug you about yours."

"How did you become a courier, anyway?" asked Bruno.

Jack had the distinct sense that he was trying to change the subject before it got to uncomfortably personal, and Jack didn't blame him. He was in no mood to discuss such intimate details when he was still not entirely comfortable with living them.

"Luck, mostly," he said. "I lived with foster families until I was about fourteen or so - old enough to start looking for work. Only not many people wanted to give jobs to a Satelliter."

Crow nodded and winced a little. Even now, there were still people who believed superstitiously that the children of the only colony ever to suffer such a catastrophic failure brought some of that colony's bad luck with them, and that it would spread to any endeavor they touched.

"Anyway," Jack continued, "one of the younger Death's Angels, Kiryu, he decided to take a chance on me and said if I had the stomach for the work, I could tag along with him. He wasn't much older than me, but he was good at the job. I learned a lot from him - he was like a big brother to me. I got good at the work too, after a while. Then someone noticed I was getting back from missions faster than anyone else, even on those rattletraps I had to drive, so someone decided to give me a chance at courier work. They sent me on a short trip to the next colony over, and they liked how I performed, so here I am."

"I can't see you as a Death's Angel," said Bruno. He shuddered a little. "Ick."

"It's usually not so bad," said Jack. "After they've been there a while, they start to dry out..."

"Don't tell me, don't tell me!" said Bruno, clapping his hands over his ears.

"Don't tell you what?" asked Carly. She reappeared carrying a bag that looked like it had originally been a pillowcase. It bulged with odds and ends.

"Jack was telling us about his colorful past," Yusei explained.

"Oh, like he was telling me, about the Death's Angels and stuff?" she asked. "That was interesting. It gave me a lot of ideas for new stories."

"You've got a stronger stomach than I've got," said Bruno, making a face.

"You're going to get a lot more ideas if you stick with us," Crow remarked. "Assuming you make it home alive."

She smiled knowingly. "I figure between the four of you, I'm pretty safe."

Crow nodded approvingly. "Tough woman."

"It sounds as though we're all going," said Yusei, pushing his empty plate away. "If that's the case, we had better go sooner rather than later."

"Right," said Crow, standing. "Head 'em up and move 'em out!"

"Jack, how long will it take for us to get to Chevalier?" Yusei asked.

Jack considered. "At my top speed, if the way was clear, about two days. We should figure it will take longer driving your battleship."

"I'll leave the computers set for a week, then," said Carly. "That'll give me time to get back."

"Mind if we take some supplies with us?" asked Bruno, indicating the empty breakfast plates. "We weren't planning on an extra guest and another week's travel time."

"Knock yourself out," she said. She was already heading for her computers. "Anything you need, grab it. I won't be here to miss it, right?"

Jack saw Yusei and Bruno glance at the scattered mechanical parts, and then at each other, and decided that loading could take a while.

He watched the rest of the group scatter on various errands - to program the radio shows, or clean up the kitchen, or to start packing up food and other necessities. He thought about helping, decided that he didn't know enough about what anyone needed to do anything but get in the way, and chose instead to go upstairs where it was quiet. He had spent most of his night being sociable, and that was several hours more than he was used to. Already he was eager for the peace of the open road.

At the top of the stairs, he let himself back into the room he'd occupied the night before. There was a window there, made of thick glass, with shutters that could be pulled down from the outside to protect them from the desert winds. He opened them now and felt the warm air brush his skin. There was a good view from up there, better than he'd realized in the dark. He could see the great flat sweep of the plains going on for miles, and in the distance, the jagged edges and humps of rock hills.

And one more thing. He blinked and shielded his eyes with one hand. Yes, it was still there: a reddish dark spot flitting along the horizon. He stared at it for a long time. It didn't go away. It flew back and forth, like something on a patrol - or, he thought, like it was waiting for something.

"Hey, Jack! You sleeping up here or what?" Crow's voice called. "Wake up! We're ready to hit the road!"

"I'm not sleeping," Jack muttered, but he pulled down the shutter and closed the window.

Downstairs, he found the rest of the group waiting in the airlock. Crow was already astride his cycle, and Yusei was at the wheel of the battleship, while Carly helped Bruno load the last of the supplies into its hold. Jack climbed onto his own ride and waited for everyone to get situated.

"Do you mind taking the lead?" Yusei asked him. "You've been to Chevalier before, haven't you? You'd know the lay of the land better than I would."

Jack nodded. "I'm ready when you are."

Bruno and Carly jumped onto the battleship and slammed the hatch door shut. Crow reached for a control panel near the door and started the outside door sliding slowly open. Heat and sand rushed into the room, and shafts of sunlight briefly dazzled Jack's eyes. Then he pulled his helmet on and revved his engines. He waved a hand for everyone to follow him before rushing out into the dusty world. The rumble of his engine made his spirits rise. Even if he wasn't a true courier anymore, he was on the road again, delivering a message of utmost importance. He was where he belonged.

As he drove, he glanced behind him to make sure that none of the others was having any problems following him. As he did, he noticed that the speck in the distance was still there, but it didn't seem to be flitting back and forth anymore. It was holding steady in the middle of the horizon. He glanced back at it several times, just to be sure. It stayed far off, too far to be seen clearly, but there was no doubt in his mind of what it was doing.

It was following them.

They had stopped for lunch.

The team had settled in the shadow of one of the great rocks that dotted the landscape. There was no place in the wasteland that was pleasant for a human being to stop and stay, but the rocks were the best it had to offer. This one was conveniently placed to block the harsh winds and to offer some protection from the scorching sunlight. It was a place where people could park their vehicles, stretch stiff limbs, relieve themselves, and enjoy the novelty of standing still for a while.

It was their third day on the road. They had been making better time than Jack had expected. By day, they pushed themselves as hard as they could, and at night, they parked wherever it looked safe and huddled around their campfire for warmth and companionship. It was a strange sensation. Jack was used to nights being the loneliest parts of his journeying. Now he was beginning to look forward to them. By day, he had to pay attention to the road ahead of him, and to the weather and monster reports on his radio. At night, though, he and his fellow travelers could sit down together to talk and joke and engage in cheerful arguments. Carly told stories that she invented during the long daylight rides. Sometimes, if he was feeling particularly sociable, Jack would tell his less-traveled companions about the distant places he'd visited and the near misses he'd lived through. There wasn't much privacy for one-to-one conversations, but there was enough that he could sleep at night with Carly curled up next to him.

He didn't think about what he was going to do when all of this was over. If he went back to his old work, or even anything like his old work, he wouldn't be traveling with companions any longer. He wasn't sure there was anything that would permit that.

Instead, he was thinking about what was behind him.

"Have any of you noticed," he said, "that we're being followed?"

Yusei looked up from where he'd been resting. "What do you mean?"

Instead of speaking, Jack beckoned for Yusei to come stand where he was standing. Jack had clambered up to the top of a small ridge of stone, giving him a slightly higher perspective and a better view of the horizon.

For the last three days, Jack had been keeping half an eye on the sky behind him. The dark spot he had seen the day they had left was still there, always just within sight, never getting any closer but never vanishing for long either. He couldn't get a good look at the speck, but the flashes of color he got when the sun glanced off of it made him think that it was some shade of red, and he couldn't fight the feeling that it was the same red-and-black dragon that had saved him from the storm. He could have almost rationalized that - that this creature had taken some sort of personal interest in him and was following him at a distance. What he couldn't explain was why it had been joined by more spots. One of them was about the same size, but paler in color, and the rest were too small and fast for him to form any impressions about. It made him wonder uneasily just how many of them there were that he wasn't seeing at all. If there were more following from ground level...

Yusei came to stand beside him and squinted into the light.

"What is it?" he asked.

Jack shook his head. "I'm not sure. They've been there the last couple of days. There was just one at first, but there are more every day. They never get any closer. Sometimes they drop out of sight, but they always come back."

"Strange," said Yusei, frowning. "I haven't heard of monsters behaving that way before... They don't look man-made, either."

"Too many weird things," said Jack.

Yusei shrugged. "It can't be helped. The best we can do is to try to get to Chevalier and out of sight."

"Mm," said Jack.

"You have other ideas?" Yusei asked.

"I don't know," Jack admitted. "If they wanted to hurt us they would have done it by now. I just wish I knew what they did want."

"We'll keep an eye on them," Yusei promised. He turned and began walking towards the battleship. "Come on. I think it's time we moved out."

"You're probably right," Jack agreed.

They ambled back to the campground, where the others were busy cleaning up after their meal.

"If my maps are right," Bruno was saying, "we'll probably reach Chevalier today. We aren't very far."

"Good," said Carly. "I hear it's the most beautiful colony in the world. I've always wanted to see it."

"Where are you from, anyway?" Crow asked.

"I was born in Taiyou," she admitted.

The others made noises of understanding. Taiyou was a small colony, devoted more to agriculture than anything else. There was very little to see or do there unless one was interested in the raising of crops or animals, and had few visitors besides tankers of cargo. Jack had been there once or twice to deliver mail, and had found the people hospitable but the surroundings uninteresting. He could see why she would have wanted to get out. Chevalier, on the other hand, was a center of culture, where the populace dealt with their isolation by devoting themselves to arts from architecture to pottery, and their cooking was renowned as the best in the world.

"It's a nice place," he said. "You'll like it."

They were just clearing away their things and preparing to hit the road again when something seemed to catch Crow's attention. He froze in place, and the others stopped what they were doing to look at him.

"Do you hear that?" he said. "Something's coming."

"A monster?" asked Yusei, worriedly scanning the sky.

"Monsters don't make noise like that," said Jack, already moving towards his vehicle. "That's a cycle. Let's move!"

There was a scramble. Tidiness forgotten, they threw their tents and utensils into the back of the battleship and dove into their seats. Yusei began to drive even before the tanker's back doors were shut. Jack, faster off the mark, drove circles around them to build momentum while he waited for the others to get going. Already the noise could be traced to a bright silver speck throwing up dust as it drove over the distant landscape. If he could see it, there was no doubt that its driver could see them, too.

"What do you think?" Crow asked over the short wave.

"Hm," said Jack. He was doing mental arithmetic. If they were being followed by a cycle, there was no way that the battleship could outpace it, even with a head start. "We're going to need evasive maneuvers."

Jack couldn't see Crow grinning, but he knew well enough to guess. "Sounds like fun."

"Don't suppose you have any more of those pit traps," said Jack.

"No, but that doesn't mean I haven't got some other fun tricks. Sit back and watch!"

Before Jack could react, Crow kicked up a plume of dust and shot off in the direction of the pursuer. Jack stared a moment, muttered some uncomplimentary things about Crow's mental abilities, and took off after him.

Crow got there first. He drove recklessly at the silver cycle, and it swerved to avoid him. Crow turned sharply and made another sweep towards him, harrying the driver and forcing him off-course. Jack wasn't sure whether or not to be impressed by his nerve; he might be reckless, but he definitely had skill. The other driver couldn't keep pace with him, and small wonder. As Jack drew closer, he realized that what he'd been seeing wasn't exactly a cycle. It had three wheels and a large trailer in back, about five feet high and nearly as wide. There was no way that something so cumbersome could have outmaneuvered an acrobat like Crow. Not that he wasn't trying; he handled the clunky machine like a stunt driver, seeming ready to tip over at any second, yet somehow always keeping at least two tires on the ground.

Jack knew who this was, of course. This was a Death's Angel, hauling his grisly cargo to the nearest city to be given a proper sendoff, or else on his way to pick up some unlucky soul who hadn't made it across the wasteland. Jack had done the job himself - not long, but long enough to have some fellow-feeling for this one. He was about to tell Crow to knock it off, that this wasn't an enemy.

That was when the driver looked up and saw Jack.

"You bastard!" The words were indistinct, but there was such rage in his tone that he almost certainly had to be saying something like that, or worse. Somehow, he managed to coax more speed out of his already straining machine, enough to try to ram at Jack. Jack dodged, but the loose soil under his wheels turned his dodge into a slide, and he was forced to slow down to avoid overturning. The Death's Angel wheeled around and prepared to have another go at him. Jack struggled to get his cycle back under control as he saw the heavy cart barreling towards him.

Out of the corner of Jack's eye, he saw a blur of motion. In the next instant, a grappling hook affixed itself to the back of the cart, with the other end anchored to Crow's cycle. Crow accelerated for all he was worth, yanking the cart sideways. The jolt was enough to unseat the rider, who suddenly found himself going one way as his ride was relentlessly pulled another way. He fell end over end onto the sandy ground. The cart went wild, and Crow was pulled with it for a few yards before it finally skidded to a stop. Jack parked his cycle a short distance from the fallen rider.

The Death's Angel shakily pushed himself up.

"Bastard," he said again. "I don't know who you think you are, but I'm going to get you for this. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be sorry you were ever born."

The voice was familiar. Jack stared a moment as the facts suddenly clicked into place.

"What do you think?" Crow asked. "I say we knock him out and stuff him in his own wagon."

"No," said Jack. "I think this is a friend."

"Sure doesn't sound like it," Crow remarked.

"I'm no friend of bandits," the Death's Angel snarled.

"Times change," said Jack, sliding off his helmet. "Hello, Kiryu."

The Angel swore again, not in fury this time but in surprise.

"Jack?" he said. "Why are you alive?"

"The same reason I was alive last time you saw me: nothing's killed me yet," said Jack.

Kiryu took off his helmet and glared at it, as though he thought it might have been responsible for his confusion. Jack gave him a hand up.

"They told me they got your breakdown signal days ago," said Kiryu. "I thought for sure you were dead."

"So what are you doing out here?" asked Jack. "That breakdown was miles from here."

"I followed the signals," said Kiryu. "The traces showed that you broke down between Domino and Momentum, stayed there for a while, and then followed another signal toward the old Satellite ruins. I figured one of the bandits out there must have killed you and looted you, so I kept following the traces of the other machine that hauled your cycle away."

"I never killed anybody!" Crow protested. "I'm a thief but I have some standards."

Jack ignored him.

"My cycle broke down," said Jack, "so Crow hauled me to a place where I could get a quick repair. Nothing to worry about."

Kiryu did not look convinced. "I was told your last message was supposed to go to Momentum. You're days away from Momentum. I know you - you'd deliver that message on your hands and knees if you had to. Where the hell are you going?"

"It's complicated," said Jack. "If I were you, I'd stay out of it."

Kiryu shook his head. "Not happening. I have a reputation. I came to drag your body back to Momentum and I'll do it even if you're still alive."

"I won't be for long if I go back to Momentum," said Jack. He sighed. "Look, I'd love to tell you what's going on, but once you know, you're in. You're better off telling them I fell down a pit or got eaten by a monster and there was nothing left to haul. You know it happens."

"What happens when I tell them that and you come home alive?" Kiryu demanded. "I'll look like a chump."

Jack smiled mirthlessly. "You're not in much danger of that." He started back towards his cycle. "Come on, Crow. Let's get out of here."

"Oh, no you don't," said Kiryu, grabbing Jack's shoulder. "You aren't just walking away with a line like that. If you're planning on doing something stupid and getting yourself killed, then I'm the one who's dragging your sorry corpse back home again, got it? So don't you dare tell me I can't do my job."

"You might end up being the one hauled home in a cart yourself," Crow warned.

Kiryu smiled, showing enough teeth to remind Jack why not everyone found Kiryu to be easy company.

"Fitting end," he said.

Jack shrugged. "It's not up to me, anyway. You'd better talk it over with the rest of us lunatics."

Within a few minutes, Jack, Crow, and Kiryu joined the other three members of the party, and they had all gathered outside the battleship to reorganize.

"What happened out there?" Bruno asked, looking curiously at Kiryu. "You didn't take him prisoner or something, did you?"

"He's not a prisoner," said Jack. "He's a volunteer. Everyone, this is Kiryu. Kiryu, this is Crow, Yusei, Bruno, and Carly."

"We're fugitives from the law," said Crow cheerfully.

"Something like that," said Yusei. "Has Jack explained to you what we're doing?"

"No," said Kiryu. "He made vaguely ominous pronouncements and told me to keep out of his business, mostly. Does anyone else here feel like being more informative?"

Carly, eternal source of news, said, "The government is behind the spiritstorms and they're killing anyone who gets too close to figuring that out, so we're trying to get to one of the people they want to kill before they do."

Kiryu stared at her. "Really."

"Succinct but accurate," said Yusei. "Jack here was given a message whose contents prove that the government is behind the storms, and contain an order for a scientist called Professor LeBlanc to be killed. We plan to warn him, and hopefully learn something from him that we can use to end the storms and the monsters once and for all."

Kiryu still looked dubious. "I've heard a lot of crazy stories in my time..."

"It's true," Bruno insisted. "I know about it all. I was there. And Yusei's father was one of the ones who was killed. This is real."

"It's what brought down Satellite," said Jack softly.

Kiryu ran a hand through his long hair, thinking. The others watched him silently.

"Well," he said, "either you're on to something, or you're all off your rockers. Either way, I'm not going back until I've finished my job, so it looks like you've got yourself a volunteer." He folded his arms over his chest and planted his feet, defying anyone to move him.

"We're grateful for your assistance," said Yusei. He looked thoughtful. "Not that there's any great safety in numbers for us. We still have to find a way to get into Chevalier without being noticed."

Carly was looking thoughtfully at Kiryu's cart.

"Actually," she said, "I might have a suggestion..."

To Be Continued…